The subdued 100th Anniversary of Chevrolet decals on the flanks of our Corvette test cars caused a little confusion for one high school kid at a gas station in Nevada. He said, "They've been making Corvettes for 100 years? No way!"

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No way, indeed, Jimmy. But they have been making Corvettes for 59 years, which might as well be 100 if you're still in your teens.

I was in first grade when the 1953 Corvette was introduced, and our local Chevy dealer had a contest in which one lucky child would win a 1953 Corvette pedal-car. It was won by a kindergartner named Bobby Bernard, who got to pedal the little fiberglass car through every classroom during our morning milk break. We were all green with envy as we slurped chocolate milk from small glass bottles through our tiny straws.

For many of us, that covetousness for a new Corvette has waxed and waned over the years, depending upon the vagaries of design, build quality and federal emissions laws. It hit a peak during the 1963–1967 Sting Ray years, dropped off during the late '70s low-horsepower/plastic bumper era, and has really been picking up steam ever since the early '80s. That's when horsepower, handling and build quality began an inexorable climb back toward parity with—or superiority to—the world's fastest and best-handling sports cars.

And happily, here in 2012, the Corvette sits comfortably in the front row of that class, coming to us in four ascending levels of price and performance. We have (1) the 6.2-liter 430-bhp .)

Chevrolet didn't want Tommy doing timed hot laps in the base and GS convertibles for safety reasons, so they also lent us coupe versions of both cars. Thus equipped with all six iterations of the current Corvette lineup, we headed off for Nevada. Our insights, opinions and scientific findings follow: